<div dir="ltr">I'm mostly just playing at this entrepreneurship thing (i.e. my goals are somewhat modest[0] and I don't have the risk tolerance to bet the farm on any single idea) so take from that what you will, but I've got more failed products swimming around in my home directory than I'd care to enumerate.<div>
<br></div><div>My general rule for any business idea now is that I need money in the bank (i.e. pre-orders) before I write a line of code/material/whatever. Think of it as test-driven business: prove the business case first and then create the content or software to meet the demand. T<a href="http://vimeo.com/47311461" target="_blank">his talk by Patrick McKenzie from MicroConf 2012</a> (from about 08:00 to 14:30) details how he learned to do it when doing custdev for <a href="https://www.appointmentreminder.org/" target="_blank">Appointment Reminder</a>, which by all accounts is doing quite well. This strategy has also worked quite well for the training offerings and consulting packages (not time and materials development work) I've been busy with lately.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If I was going to focus on building a SaaS product I'd try to pick a market where I can make an offer that fits within the constraints that Jason Cohen (of A Smart Bear and WPEngine) outlines in <a href="http://vimeo.com/74338272" target="_blank">this talk</a> (also from MicroConf, but 2013 instead).</div>
<div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div>
<div><br></div><div>P.S. This is kind of off-topic for LRUG, so if this sort of thing interests you then we have a monthly support group that meets near Chancery Lane every month: <a href="http://bootstrappedbusinessmeetup.com">bootstrappedbusinessmeetup.com</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><div>[0]: Well, modest compared to the default raise lots of funding, swing for the fences and get acquired by AmaGooBookSoft for Scrooge McDuck money strategy. I'd be content with a "lifestyle" business i.e. a couple of million a year in annual revenue plus a house near a beach with a study and a workshop</div>
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</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 7:00 PM, Paul Robinson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul@iconoplex.co.uk" target="_blank">paul@iconoplex.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote">On 3 March 2014 12:10, MG Lim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mirageglobe@gmail.com" target="_blank">mirageglobe@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div>
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<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>I am curious about how things for how ideas move on.... -> panning out to projects -> gathering a team and finally to funding rounds?</div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div>Mistake number 1 I know I made: thinking that entrepreneurship is about taking an idea and progressing it. This isn't just about software entrepreneurship but covers everything from inventing a better mousetrap to opening a pub.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Entrepreneurship is about identifying a market need and coming up with a solution that fixes it better than the alternatives in the minds of the customer.</div><div><br></div><div>It's a subtle difference, but the change in emphasis is really important. It is not enough to have an idea and move it on: it needs you to spot a market need and identify the solution, and then how you discuss that with stakeholders (including the market) is what actually dictates the movement.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The more obvious the need the more excited people will be about a solution (and the easier it will be to raise money, recruit, etc.). The more convincing your solution, the quicker you will be able to go (because you'll get more more money, more people, etc.).<br>
<br>As a result, detailed planning of almost anything pre-launch is likely wishful thinking at best.</div><div class=""><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div>More of a general discussion; but what have your experiences been; if you have been in that path or part of that path? "I wish I had done that in the beginning" moments..<br></div></div></blockquote>
<div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div>I wish I had been considerably more conservative and bearish with my time/cost estimates on many occasions. On two occasions with hindsight I allowed stakeholders with insufficient experience to take too much control (so I got blamed for their fuck-ups), and on one occasion I did not let them have enough (so they lost passion for what they were doing).</div>
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<div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div></div>
<div>Marketing hells? Traction problems and in reality, the project took a good 3~5 years before media reported it as an overnight success.<br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div>Actually the reality is after 3-5 years you're probably on the wrong path and in need of a pivot if you're not seeing growth. Most of the household names had serious traction in under 18 months.</div>
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<div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div></div><div>PS: particularly with ruby-based frameworks / meteor styled frameworks; prototypes are quick to be churned out. </div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div>There is no doubt that the power of modern frameworks reduces the time to ship and therefore the cost.</div><div><br></div><div>What is harder to swallow for most technologists is that shipping the product means virtually nothing on its own. </div>
<div><br></div><div>In the same way a marketing team can only get so far with vapourware and the fact they will eventually need to ship product, an engineering team can only get so far without some serious marketing talent. Good companies with strong traction get that way by getting both almost perfect and in harmony.</div>
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